To-Do List for Starting A Blog

I've been helping a few people at work start their own blogs, so I thought I'd outline my advice on how to get started:

• Read the Cluetrain Manifesto.  Don't go any further until you're done.  If you hate this book, you probably won't be interested in blogging.  If you love this book, move ahead one space.
• Read Debbie Weil’s Beginner’s Guide to Business Blogging.  Awesome primer.  You can get it at Change This for free until January 25.
• Subscribe to Bloglines, the best RSS aggregator, in my opinion.  It's free and simple to use.
• Subscribe to these blogs and read them every day for at least 30 days.

• Doc Searls
• David Weinberger
• Tom Peters
• Hugh MacLeod
• Dan Gillmor
• Seth Godin
• Steve Rubel
• Robert Scoble
• Dave Winer
• Jeff Risley (I had to sneak this one in there…)

• Post a comment on at least one blog each week.
• Determine if you have the time to maintain a blog. This is a crucial step.  Blogging takes time.  More than you think.  But it's worth the investment.
• Decide what you want the focus of your blog to be.  This doesn't have to be all you talk about.  Some blogs are very general in nature.  Some focus on a particular business or profession.  The point is, decide up front.
• Choose a blog tool.  There are free, hosted ones like Blogger, and paid, hosted ones like Typepad (what I use).  There's also software like Moveable Type and Manila.
• Design your blog.  Come up with a name.  Get familiar with the blog tool.  Play.
• Write your first post.  And please, make it better than my first post.

Comments

[hugh macleod]

Not a bad list. Thanks for putting me on it =)

It's damn hard to give people other advice on bloigging. Some get it, some don't, and there's nothing you can do.

Could you do me a favor? Could you e-mail me Debbie Weil's PDF? I try to download it off of ChangeThis but my darn browser won't let me save it.

email: hugh AT gapingvoid.com

Thanks =)

PS: It's MacLeod, not McCloud ;-)

[Jeff Risley]

Oh man, do I feel like an idiot. Sorry about the mis-spell, Hugh. It's been corrected.

[Susan Mernit]

Good advice, Jeff.

[Wendy]

Yes, great advice & I'm going to check out some of your links. But I do wonder why there are no women on your list of blogs?

[Jeff Risley]

No reason. I didn't intentionally leave women bloggers off, nor would I list a blogger simply because she was a woman. Both would be sexist, in my opinion.

There are several women bloggers on my blog roll. This is simply a short list of the best general and/or marketing/communications-related blogs to read to get a good sense of how blogs should be written, I think.

[david]

Read Hugh. The rest is commentary.

[Karina Narduzzi]

I appreciate any feedback on my blog. I am new at this stuff. I also liked some of the advice Jeff Risley had in this blog. Thanks

[someguy]

Shouldn't you have mentioned some blog tools like chatter boxes,technorati accounts,flickr/buzznet and so on?

[kispole]

The Author, you - super hero!
http://srubibablo.com
Many thanks!